弘明集 4.20

4.20

釋曰。聞之前學。淳象始於參畫。兼卦終於六爻。參畫立本三才之位。六爻未變群龍所經。是以重卦之後。則以出處明之。故遯世乾乾潛藏偕行。聖人適時之義兼之道也。若以初爻非地。三位非天。以為兩儀罔託立人無取。未知足下前論三才同體。何因而生。若猶受之繫說不軼師訓。何獨得之複卦喪之單象。如義文之外更有三才。此自春秋新意。吾無識焉。且遯世乾乾雖非覆載之名。一體之中未失卑高之實。豈得以變動之辭。廢立本之義。又知以爻在中和宜應君德。若徒有中和之爻。竟無中和之人。則爻將何放。若中和在德則不得人背中和。體合之論固未可殊越。

Explanation: I have heard from former scholars that the pure symbols began with three strokes, and the combined hexagrams concluded with six lines. The three strokes established the foundation, the positions of the Three Powers. When the six lines have not yet changed, they are what the host of dragons traverses. Therefore, after the hexagrams were doubled, they were clarified through withdrawal and office. Thus, withdrawing from the world, diligently toiling, lying hidden, and acting together are the sage's timely righteousness, a way that combines them. If, because the initial line is not Earth and the third position is not Heaven, one considers the Two Poles to have nothing to rely upon and nothing to be drawn upon to establish humanity, I do not know where your previous discussion that the Three Powers share a single essence arose from. If you still receive it from the Great Treatise [Xici] and do not transgress ancestral instruction, why do you uniquely obtain it in doubled hexagrams yet lose it in single emblems? If outside the text of righteousness there are separate Three Powers, this is merely a new idea from the Spring and Autumn period, of which I have no knowledge. Moreover, although 'withdrawing from the world' and 'diligently toiling' are not the names of covering and supporting, within a single essence they have not lost the reality of low and high. How can one, through words describing change and motion, abolish the principle of establishing the foundation? You also realize that because the line is centered and harmonious, it should correspond to the ruler's virtue. If there were merely a centered and harmonious line yet ultimately no centered and harmonious person, what would the line emulate? If center and harmony lie in virtue, one cannot have a person who turns his back on center and harmony. The thesis of essential union certainly cannot be dismissed.